Middle East

The ruling class in Israel is in deep crisis at all levels: politically, militarily and economically. The majority of the Israelis feel very confused. Their "world view", imposed on them by the ruling class, has been shattered. What is missing is a working class mass movement struggling to overthrow this rotten system.

Wednesday was the first full day of Israel's attempted land offensive into southern Lebanon. While the main powers argue over whether to impose a cease-fire, Israeli armed forces have been bombing villages and hospitals. Earlier they killed 60 people in a village, including 37 children. At first they claimed it was a mistake, but later it was revealed it was an "experiment".

Lebanon is one of the earliest cradles of civilization with its flourishing Semitic trading cities of Byblos, Berytus (Beirut), Sidon, Sarepta, and Tyre, an area which the ancient Greeks termed Phoenicia more than 2000 years ago. Here we also find the oldest known 24-letter alphabet. However, for most of its long history Lebanon has been dominated by foreign rulers including the Assyrians, Babylonians, Armenians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Ottomans, French, Syrians and most recently the Southern part was occupied by Israel for almost twenty years.

The air strikes against Lebanon continue, as do the rockets being fired on Israel. The responsibility for the bloodshed and suffering of this new conflict lies first and foremost with the Israeli ruling class, who had clearly been preparing for such a scenario for some time.

On Monday we spoke with Yossi Schwartz in Haifa, one of the cities hit by Hizbollah rockets. Below we are providing the text of a conversation with him in which he describes the mood in the country and looks at the possible scenario that may unfold over the next few days.